Objective: Gestational hyperglycemia is associated with deleterious neonatal outcomes, but long-term risks for offspring obesity are less clear. We estimated the odds for offspring adolescent overweight and obesity among mothers with gestational glucose intolerance.
Methods: In a mother-offspring, historical cohort, the Israel military conscription dataset was linked to a large health maintenance organization. Included were women who were evaluated at adolescence and performed two-step gestational diabetes screening (mean age, 31 years) with a 50-g glucose challenge test (GCT) , followed by a 100-g oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) if abnormal. Glucose tolerance categories included gestational normoglycemia, abnormal GCT with normal OGTT, impaired glucose tolerance (IGT; one abnormal OGTT value) , and gestational diabetes. The primary outcome was offspring overweight/obesity (BMI≥85th percentile) at adolescence, measured prior to military conscription. Logistic regression models were applied.
Results: Of 33,482 mother-offspring pairs, overweight and obesity were observed in 6,516 offspring. Across increasing categories of pregnancy glycemia, the proportions of offspring with adolescent overweight/obesity increased: normoglycemia, 19%; abnormal GCT with normal OGTT, 22%; gestational IGT, 24%; and gestational diabetes, 25%, P<0·0001. Corresponding odds ratios after adjustment for mother's late-adolescent characteristics (sociodemographic confounders and BMI) and pregnancy age were 1.2 (95%CI, 1.1-1.4) , 1.3 (95%CI, 1.2-1.5) , and 1.4 (95%CI, 1.3-1.6) , respectively. Further adjustment for offspring birth weight percentile and sociodemographic variables did not materially change results. Associations were more pronounced with increasing obesity severity.
Conclusions: Gestational glucose intolerance, including categories not meeting the gestational diabetes threshold, were associated with increased odds for offspring overweight/obesity at late adolescence.
C.D.Bendor: None. Y.Lebenthal: Advisory Panel; Lilly, Novo Nordisk, Research Support; Novo Nordisk, Pfizer Inc., Speaker's Bureau; Pfizer Inc. A.Afek: None. G.Chodick: None. G.Twig: None. A.Bardugo: None. R.Rotem: None. E.Derazne: None. H.C.Gerstein: Advisory Panel; Abbott, Eli Lilly and Company, Hanmi Pharm. Co., Ltd., Novo Nordisk, Pfizer Inc., Sanofi, Viatris Inc., Consultant; Kowa Company, Ltd., Other Relationship; DKSH, Eli Lilly and Company, Sanofi, Zuellig Pharma Holdings Pte. Ltd., Research Support; AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly and Company, Merck & Co., Inc., Novo Nordisk, Sanofi. D.Tzur: None. O.Pinhas-hamiel: Advisory Panel; Novo Nordisk, Speaker's Bureau; Pfizer Inc. A.M.Tsur: None. T.Cukierman-yaffe: Research Support; European Association for the Study of Diabetes, Medtronic, Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., Novo Nordisk, Speaker's Bureau; AstraZeneca, Eli Lilly and Company, Medtronic, Merck Sharp & Dohme Corp., Novo Nordisk, Sanofi.
